Computer Crashes while gaming need help

[kyle101]

usally after a couple hours of playing. my computer will freeze grapics will dispear and then freeze again. after that i'll need to reboot. and go from there. usally happens every couple hours to every couple days to every couple mins very random.

and i just picked up a new grapic card thinking it will solve the problem. i got a ati radeon 4850.

looking for any ideas on this problem.

i have all my latest drivers installed. ive doubled checked numerous times.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

You need to post the complete computer specs. It's hard to diagnose a problem without knowing what you're working with. My first thought would be the PSU not supplying clean power when gaming.

 

[kyle101]

i have Kingston 4gb DDR2
MoBo is Asus M3A78
Along with AMD Phenom x4 9550 Quad Core processor
1000W coolermaster Power supply
ATI RADEON HD 4850

 

[kyle101]

---Delete---

 

[kyle101]

bump:

please help! im super bummed and choked about my new pc crashing like this. could it be my mobo? please help!

<#3

 

[kyle101]

bump

 

[techgeek]

First I would check you RAM by running Memtest. In most cases random lockups can be attributed to bad RAM. Download the ISO burn it to CD and boot from it. Let it run for a few hours, sometimes it takes awhile before bad RAM begins erroring.

Give that a try and let us know.

 

[cfvh600]

Also check the temperatures on your mobo,cpu,gpu. Perhaps something is getting too hot.

 

[goonting]

which specific ASUS M3A78 are you having? there are more than 3 of them... did you try with other games?

 

[goonting]

I used to get random crashes on Crysis when my previous PSU was dying on me with lower than 5% of 12V showing on my XPC monitor... Since I replace it with a new 450watt with stable 12V... I had no issues with freezing on Crysis or random restarts.

 

[yobigd20]

Could be hte power supply, could be heat issues. Check to make your your heatsink on your CPU is not loose.

 

[goonting]

better check kyle...

 

[megamanx00]

Before you read the following did you uninstall the old drivers first? If not the the following advice may be useless because it could just be a crazy driver issue.

Go into the BIOS and make sure that y our RAM is set to the recommended speed, voltage, and timmings. First run memtest for an hour or so. If it passes then boot it up and run Prime 95. You should also be running everst or something while running prime to monitor your temps. If you get an error it could just be over heating so you would have to whipe off the old thermal paste and apply new paste. If you get an error but it's not getting too hot at stock clocks then you may want to try downclocking the RAM. Even if it passes memtest it may just not be suitable to run at its advertised speed, settings, and voltage so it may have problems under load. In that even increasing your memvoltage by .1v should take care of it if you don't want to go through the hassel of an RMA. You should also check the ASUS website to see if the motherboard has any problems with your particular RAM. You may just need a BIOS update.

If it's stable under prime with the latest BIOS but still crashes with games then it could be the PSU, GPU or the motherboard. Most likely culprit would be the PSU. If you monitor the voltages and notice great fluctuation then the PSU could be making your system unstable.

 

[jaywarren]

If i can ask here how do you run memtest? I need to as well? thank you.

 

[techgeek]

Click on this link: http://www.memtest.org/download/2.11/memtest86+-2.11.iso.zip . This will download the ISO. Unzip it and burn it to CD. Then boot from it and let it run. Make sure to run it for several passes to be absolutely sure there are not errors, sometimes it takes awhile for the errors to occur. I have a dual channel set for OCZ where one DIMM was bad, it took 5 passes before it started to error. Once it did, it errorred consistantly in several locations on the same tests.

 

[bonanzaguy]

Sounds like overheating to me.